How not to love a Hedgehog

  The problem with hedgehogs, like dogs, is that your have to train them to trust you and to love you. I recently bought a hedgehog. He was a big ball of thorns when I first got him (three weeks ago) but now he's such a momma's boy. He climbs up onto my shoulder and plays with my hair. I should post a picture of him. Everyone who has seen him has instantly fallen in love. 
  Which is great, except for the fact that when I bought him he was sick. After two weeks, he started gushing blood out onto my floor. He is a spoiled little bugger and he was playing in his play pen when i found floods of blood puddling onto my hard wood floor. As any pet owner and cute fuzzy animal lover would do, I brought him to the vet. In an hour, he wracked up a three hundred dollar plus vet bill and we still didn't know what was wrong with him. Let it be said that the doctors at St. Marks vet are incredibly sweet and it is conveniently open 7 days a week. After a week of wrestling him down twice a day to give him medicine. He got better then suddenly worse. He is back to his original stat of sickness. 
  Last night, when I took him out of his cage, he had extended out his penis so long that I thought he had elephantitis and the tip of it was blackish purple. Not normal. At first I thought he was in heat, then the bleeding started again. He was panting and convulsing at 2 am and I was helpless. After a second trip to the vet., there's still no evidence to point out a cause. I have to give up my baby. The pet store agreed to take him back and replace him because the vet told me that what ever it is... he has had it more than 3 weeks. But how do I bring him back knowing that they are going to kill him. When hes not panting, bleeding , or scaring me with his blue balls,  he is the sweetest most content little critter and I hate to see him go.
  This brings me to wonder why we grow to love animals that way that we love ourselves. I groom and and make sure I am home to let him exercise. I give up my lack of time out of love for a 2 pound mammal. And I'm not the only one. Cat and bird owners do the same. My roomate has a hamster (who I think is possesed by the devil). Then there are dog owners in manhattan, who win the physcosis award for the amount of time it takes to maintain such a large and needy animal in the city. Pooper scoopers I like to call them. None the less, I am bewildered as to why some of us depend on animal companionship. Are fellow humans really that bad? Or is it just that the relationship between a person and their pet provides a level of dependance and self-worth for each party?